AK should take doping fears seriously

Athletics Kenya’s anti-doping seminar is timely as it comes at a time when Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has set new rules to fight doping menace. There are rising cases of drug cheats among Kenyan athletes and it is high time we reined in the cheats who are giving Kenya a bad name. Under the new rules, national federations are categorised annually by the AIU board in three different categories — A, B and C.

Category A features high risk nations while category C has low risk nations. Sadly, Kenya lies in category A. World 800m bronze medalist Kipyegon Bett, Milan Marathon winner Lucy Kabuu and Athens Marathon winner Samuel Kalalei are among the growing list of Kenyan athletes who have flouted anti-dopingrules.
But it is unfortunate that Athletics Kenya still keeps secrets on doping. The officials have never come out clean on the number of athletes that have tested positive. Even athletes found to have tested positive have not come out to say how they doped.
Yet AK spends millions of shillings to host athletes in hotels for days instead of creating awareness on the scourge at the grassroots. This training, much as it is welcomed, should be done right from schools and training camps where they are needed most.

AK must change tack if its efforts are to yield fruits. Otherwise, Kenyans may have to get used to being embarrassed in international press when world beating athletes fail the test. It’s high time we face the reality head-on.